Deborah L. Wince-Smith

Strategic Board of Advisors

Deborah L. Wince-Smith is the president & CEO of the Council on Competitiveness, a coalition of CEOs, university presidents, labor leaders and national laboratory directors, committed to driving U.S. competitiveness. She has more than 20 years of experience as a senior U.S. government official, as the first Senate-confirmed Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy in the U.S. Department of Commerce and Assistant Director for International Affairs in the Reagan White House.

Ms. Wince-Smith is also the president of the Global Federation of Competitiveness Councils, whose creation she led. She is a member of Japan’s Science & Technology in Society Forum Council and of the Commission on the Theft of Intellectual Property, co-chaired by Mr. Craig Barrett, former chairman of Intel Corporation, and Admiral Dennis Blair, former U.S. director of national intelligence. She serves on Purdue University’s Strategic Research Advisory Council and on the board of the American College in Greece, the oldest American-accredited college in Europe and the largest private college in Greece.

An internationally renowned, leading voice on competitiveness, innovation strategy, science and technology, and international economic policy, Ms. Wince-Smith has been credited with recharging the national debate on competitiveness, innovation and resilience. Ms. Wince-Smith is frequently called upon to testify in front of the U.S. Congress and appears regularly on global television news networks including Bloomberg, BBC, CNBC, CNN and Fox News.

Ms. Wince-Smith has served as the vice-chair and chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Competitiveness. She was previously a member of the Smithsonian National Board and the Naval Academy Foundation Board.

Ms. Wince-Smith earned a degree in classical archaeology and graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Vassar College. She earned her master’s degree from King’s College, Cambridge University, and received an honorary doctorate in humanities from Michigan State University, an honorary doctorate in public administration from the University of Toledo, an honorary doctorate of law honoris causa from the Queens University Belfast, and an honorary doctorate of humane letters honoris causa from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.